Advance Comments on NSSO-led Study on Space-Based Solar Power
NYACK, NY, October 9 – A National Security Space Office (NSSO)-led study group, which has been investigating space-based solar power (SBSP) as a way to reduce American dependence on foreign-oil as well as a solution to the possibility of global warming, is set to announce the study results on October 10th at 9 a.m. EDT at a National Press Club event sponsored by the National Space Society. The full report by the NSSO-led study group will also be published online at 9 a.m. EDT at http://ssp.space-frontier.org.
Bob Werb, Chairman of the Board of the Space Frontier Foundation stated, “The Space Frontier Foundation fully supports ALL of the recommendations of this SBSP study that was led by the National Security Space Office. The big news of this study is that the Pentagon may become a big customer for wireless power transmission, as SBSP could save the lives of American men and women in war zones.” Werb continued, “In addition to the cost of American lives that are lost protecting fuel convoys in Iraq, the total price for electrical power at forward bases is at least $1 per kilowatt-hour.” The study report, which was prepared for the NSSO Director, will conclude, “space-based solar power presents a strategic opportunity” for America that “merits significant further attention on the part of both the US Government and the private sector.” The study report will also state that “SBSP requires a coordinated national program with high-level leadership and resourcing commensurate with its promise, but at least on the level of fusion energy research or International Space Station construction and operations.”
Jeff Krukin, Executive Director, stated, “The Space Frontier Foundation, which has opposed many other federally-funded space programs as being wasteful and/or ineffective – strongly supports a new national initiative for the U.S. Government to finance and to incentivize private industry investment in SBSP.” Krukin continued, “We call on the U.S. Congress to give American SBSP companies the same loan guarantees that it is giving to the nuclear power industry in order to close the SBSP business case.”
The SBSP study report also finds that “although SBSP holds great promise to deliver clean and renewable energy to all nations of the world, the potential environmental impacts of the various systems and mitigation options to minimize those impacts require greater study.” For this reason, the study report recommends “the U.S. Government … must study the potential environmental impacts of the various approaches early enough to help make effective choices between the various technical alternatives.”
Margo Deckard, the Space Frontier Foundation’s SBSP project manager stated, “We plan to hold the U.S. Government to its promise to adopt a green engineering approach.” Deckard continued, “The Space Frontier Foundation will host a conference on SBSP in July 2008 in Washington, D.C. for this purpose. At this conference we will bring business, government, environmental, policy and technology professionals together to discuss and promote the advancement of this breakthrough technology.”
The Space Frontier Foundation is an organization of people dedicated to opening the space frontier to human settlement as rapidly as possible. Our goals include protecting the Earth’s fragile biosphere and creating a freer and more prosperous life for each generation by using the unlimited energy and material resources of space.
For more information, contact Margo Deckard at 937-376-8737 or mardeckard@aol.com.
